Sometimes a good day feels like a bad day, sometimes a bad day feels like a good day, and sometimes a cyclone of every emotion feels like a Seahawks home game.
There was at least 25 minutes left on the clock when I simply started to root for Seattle’s defense protecting their great stats against the Chargers, but by the middle of the fourth quarter those feelings simplified into a singular goal of escaping Sunday with a win. Despite losing the yardage battle 168-21 in the fourth quarter, and a combined THIRTY penalties, the Seahawks closed out L.A.’s comeback attempt.
Seahawks 30, Chargers 23
It’s far from the score I wanted when the Seahawks were up 27-6, but it’s the least I expected given how poorly Sam Darnold played and how many penalties were on Seattle (14 for 150 yards) at home.
Normally I don’t do a “good, bad, ugly” segment, but it’s the only thing I can think of to organize my reaction to the game right now.
Great: The Defense
The Seahawks have had 56 points scored against the team in the last two weeks, but I can’t really put a lot of blame on the defense for those scores. Justin Herbert had a career-low for first half passing yards and Seattle was consistently putting the Chargers in low-percentage third down situations. L.A. had to go 2-of-2 on fourth down just to make it close and one of those conversions took a monumental concentration effort by Oronde Gadsen to catch the pass.
Another was a really ticky tack roughing the passer penalty against Derick Hall on fourth and forever.
The Chargers were held to 5-of-15 on third down against the best third down defense in the NFL. It’s hard to be mad at the defense and we saw a handful of great individual performances, including my Defensive Player of the Game Ernest Jones:
Uchenna Nwosu game-winning forced fumble
Drake Thomas circus interception
Sacks by Jones, Nick Emmanwori, Byron Murphy, Nwosu
Emmanwori 9 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits
Devon Witherspoon all-around good effort
Nehemiah Pritchett big pass breakup
“Giving up” 23 points and I’m more confident than ever that Seattle has the best defense in the league.
Good: Brian Fleury
There are things that could be cleaned up, but I’m more confident in Fleury after four games this season than I was in Klint Kubiak in four games after last season. He really had to couch around some of Darnold’s issues today.
Good: Emanuel Wilson
His first start this season was better than any of Jadarian Price’s starts. That’s not to put down Price, it’s just a true thing we can say. Wilson had 81 rushing yards, 39 receiving yards, and two touchdowns.
The Seahawks are kicking the tires on Joe Mixon as a possible signing this week. Wilson should retain the starting role going against the 49ers.
Good: Jaxon Smith-Njigba
He’s still JSN. He’s just the “only” 76 yards version and he could have been over 100 if Darnold had seen he was open a few more times.
Good: Michael Dickson
He also had a bad punt. It was kind of one of those days for the Seahawks.
Bad: Sam Darnold
13-of-22 for 168 yards. His first pass was intercepted. He missed or didn’t see some open receivers. He had an intentional grounding penalty.
Did I miss anything? You can defend Darnold too, I’m going to need to watch the game again to get the full picture.
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Ugly: 30 penalties (14 on Seattle)
This isn’t what the NFL wants. No matter who is at fault, this amount of yellow stinks and it’s really, really boring. This game took forever.
Ugly: Jason Myers
Missed PAT. Missed field goal that lucky for him was negated because of a penalty on the Chargers.
So-So: A.J. Barner (and the other options)
It felt like Barner had a drop on a third down, but I’ll need to watch it again. He had 12 yards, Rashid Shaheed had one 20-yard catch (but also a touchdown run which was nice), Cooper Kupp had 13 yards, Elijah Arroyo is not a part of the offense at all.
Tory Horton did catch a touchdown, his sixth of his career.
Seattle’s objective is to use their non-JSN weapons situationally and they’re not concerned with fantasy stats—and that’s fine! But it feels like the team is underachieving with these options anyway.
Expectations Results
Here were your expected results before the game.
Sam Darnold expected: 295
Sam Darnold actual: 168
Not what anyone wanted to see and I don’t feel like the Chargers defense was that good either.
JSN expected: 128
JSN actual: 76
Should have had more, not his fault.
“Emanuel Wilson” expected: 61.5
Emanuel Wilson actual: 81
I know most of you were using Price as your expectation, but Wilson was better than the number Price was expected to have! Which I did expect.
Offensive Player of the Game: Emanuel Wilson
Defensive Player of the Game: Ernest Jones IV
Special teams Player of the Game: Connor O’Toole
I know that a lot of people think Dickson should be special teams player of the game, and that’s fine. Dickson did have a bad punt. And O’Toole did have a penalty on special teams. However, his ability to wrangle the muffed punt was very impressive and caused a turnover. That’s bigger for me.
Greatest Expectation Winner: McKinley
McKinley had the Seahawks winning 27-17. McKinley also had Wilson on the first TD (true), Nick Emmanwori with the most sacks (tied for most), Ernest Jones forcing a turnover (true), and Jones as the defensive player of the game.
Lakeside Kurt, you were really really close to first. You had a lot of the same answers as McKinley, but slightly less accurate on the final score.
Frankly, few expectations submissions expected Darnold to struggle this badly or JSN to have under 120 yards, so that brought the answer down to banking on Ernest Jones, I think.
Do you think you deserved to win? Tell me why!
Seahawks are 3-1. 49ers are 4-0. NFC West showdown next Sunday afternoon at home.
I’m very concerned for next week. Especially if we play like that again.
I can’t remember if it was Keneth or Mookie or someone else here/FieldGulls, but there was once a lot of talk about how difficult it is to switch OC’s and how drop-off should occur. I’m not sure if that’s what is happening with Darnold. But one thing that’s in the back of my mind. Win ugly at the beginning of the season for it to be less ugly by end of season.